Repeating his call sign and carefully turning the dial of his Elecraft radio, the lifelong ham radio enthusiast from Uxbridge listened as "Sugar Poppa two Yankee’’ – "Mark from north Poland" – greeted him through a patch of static.

"I love knowing someone can hear me on the other side of the world,’’ said Thompson, sitting before a bank of radios and amplifiers in his home radio station. Just beyond his swimming pool, three antennas – 100, 90 and 40 feet tall – rose from the woods surrounding his house.

"It’s a little bit like fishing,’’ he said. "You never know who’s out there and who’s going to call back.’’

As co-chairman of the World Radiosport Team Championship 2014, Thompson will be bringing that excitement and drama to New England this week as 59 teams from around the world compete in the grueling, day-long competition known as the "Olympiad of amateur radio."

This week’s event will be the first quadrennial radiosport competition held in the U.S. since 1996. Prior WRTC contests were held in Russia (2010), Brazil (2006) and Finland (2002).

Starting at 8 a.m. on Saturday, July 12, the two-operator teams from 38 countries will operate without sleep for 24 hours attempting to contact as many stations and countries as possible, accumulating the highest score to earn the title of "best in the world.’’

Using voice and Morse code transmissions, competitors accumulate points by recording contacts with other operators. The scoring system includes "multipliers’’ that increase the score depending on distance within the U.S. and extra points for international contacts.

Thompson said each team will devise "different strategies’’ based on seeking domestic or international contacts, which might change depending on the weather and time of day when operators in other countries are active.

He said his passion for ham radios "has informed every career choice in my life.’’

Growing up in Odessa, Texas, Thompson got his first "ham’’ radio in 1973 when he was 13-years-old.

"My father was in the oil business and I went to lots of different schools,’’ he recalled. "But with a radio, it didn’t matter where I was. I knew the same people.’’

Thompson has helped select operating sites for the teams along the Rte. 495 corridor in private properties, state parks and town- and state-owned sites in Devens, the former Medfield State Hospital, Mansfield, Wrentham, Assonet, Dighton, Pepperell, Hollis, N.H., and several other communities.

Each team will set up twin radios connected to a 40-foot antenna while staying in a tent with a nearby chemical toilet. A judge will be assigned to each team to ensure compliance with the rules. For this competition, radios will be limited to 100 watts and operators can use only five frequency bands.

Page 2 of 3 - The Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in Westborough will serve as the event’s Olympic Village and house more than 100 competitors and officials and serve as host for opening and closing ceremonies

Krassimir "Krassy’’ Petkov, of Medway, and Mladen Bogdanov, of Serbia, both experienced international competitors with many wins, will comprise North America 1, one of 11 U.S. teams.

The CEO of Milara, Inc. in Milford, which builds robots for the U.S. military and other high tech products, Petkov credited his passion for radios with inspiring the drive and self-confidence to become an international manufacturer.

A native of Bulgaria who learned to operate and build ham radios at age 13 in 1969, Petkov said, "Everybody in this competition is good. Everybody could win.’’

In high level competitions, he said operators must make split-second decisions based on their knowledge of their radios’ capacities, how radio waves bounce off the ionosphere, changing weather patterns and the habits of operators around the world.

A retired police communications specialist, Bogdanov has been a ham radio enthusiast since 1976 in high school and has won numerous international contests.

Petkov and Bogdanov, who "met’’ years ago by radio and have competed together in several international contests, have set their sights on first place.

To win, they said they must operate two radios continuously without sleep, making contact with and logging the call signs of 4,500 or more other stations. While factors like the weather could affect performance, Petkov said operators would probably make and record between "two and seven contacts a minute’’ for 24 straight hours.

Petkov described Bogdanov as "the world’s best at Morse code’’ who could make and record 250 to 300 contacts in an hour.

On Thursday morning in Petkov’s state-of-the-art radio station in his Medway business, Bogdanov tapped the keys of a Morse code sender as rapidly and gently as a classical pianist, recording contacts with five other operators in a single minute.

Both agreed that "focused concentration’’ even when fatigued was the key to winning and "excitement slows you down.’’ "This is where people reach their limitations,’’ said Petkov.

Growing up in Los Gatos, Calif., Dennis Egan’s fascination with radios began when he attached a wire antenna to a family radio and started picking up stations from Chicago and Canada. When a high school teacher got him involved with ham radios, he discovered "a lifetime hobby for 45 years.’’

A retired postmaster, the Marlborough resident said he’s made friends around the world over the radio and was invited to stay in the homes of fellow "hams’’ in Jamaica and Anguilla when he visited rather than in hotels.

A member of the Algonquin Amateur Radio Club of Marlborough, Egan has been helping organize equipment and logistics for the coming competition.

Page 3 of 3 - He worries youngsters today have become so absorbed by the Internet and social media they’ve lost the "sense of wonder’’ of learning about science and technology by building and operating their own radio sets like he did long ago.

"If you get on the radio and point it over the North Pole, you could be talking with someone in Finland, Siberia or Mongolia," Egan said. "Moments like that remind me of life’s mysteries. For me, radio has always been magic.’’

Contact Chris Bergeron at cbergeron@wickedlocal.com or 508-626-4448. Follow us on Twitter @WickedLocalArts and on Facebook.